Strasburg teen dies in crash

An 18-year-old Strasburg resident was killed Thursday night after the Jeep Wrangler he was driving ran off the road and overturned on U.S. 11 south of Strasburg. Rich Cooley/Daily

A Strasburg teen died Thursday evening in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. 11 south of Strasburg.

State Police Sgt. F.L. (Les) Tyler said Christopher Jordan Saville, 18, of Strasburg, was traveling northbound on U.S. 11 about a half mile south of Green Acre Drive at 8:40 p.m. Thursday when his 2000 Jeep Wrangler ran off the road to the right side.

Tyler said Saville over-corrected to the left, the Jeep Wrangler overturned and then slid into the southbound lane where it collided with the side of a 2013 Chevy passenger vehicle.

Tyler said Saville, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the Jeep Wrangler.

“He died at the scene of injuries sustained in the crash,” Tyler said.

Virginia state troopers M.R. Leeds, left, and C.D. White look over the scene of a fatal crash that occurred Thursday night on U.S. 11 just south of Strasburg. Rich Cooley/Daily

No information about the occupants of the other vehicle was available.

Saville was remembered on Friday in both Winchester and Strasburg by those close to him.

Andy Fahey is an office administrator at Mountain View Christian Academy, where Saville was in school for his senior year. This was Saville’s second year at the school, where he played basketball and baseball. Previously, he attended Strasburg High School.

Fahey said Friday’s basketball game – the last game of the season – was canceled.

Christopher Saville

“As a school today, we had an assembly in the morning; the church staff and the faculty were available for the students,” he said. “They shared stories about Chris and gave each other support.”

He said possible school plans for a full service in Saville’s memory hadn’t been set as of Friday.

“Right now things are just too fresh for anything to have really been set up,” he said. “We’re looking at a possible scholarship, but that’s just in the talking stage right now.”

Sarah Peer, a senior and 2016 class president at Strasburg High School, organized for a group of students – friends of Saville’s – to release 17 purple and white balloons Friday afternoon: 16 for the class of 2016 and one in memory.

She said she’d known Saville since they were toddlers, and the two had grown up and gone to school together.

“When we were in preschool together, we were always at each other’s birthday parties, always hanging out together,” she said. “We were always two peas in a pod when we were younger.

Peer said Strasburg students assembled on Friday to share their thoughts of Saville and signed banners with messages to him. With some deliberation with her mother Friday morning, Peer knew she wanted to make her own special tribute by releasing the balloons.

“Everyone knew him, he’s a good person and we wanted to do something for him,” she said.

Connecting over social media, Peer said, those who knew Saville are sharing photos and good memories of him over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.